Attractions and Places To See around Belmonte In Sabina - Top 20

Grande Albergo Quattro Stagioni, Piazza Cesare, Rieti RI Quattro Stagioni, Piazza Cesare Battisti 14, Rieti RI The hotel is located in a restricted-traffic zone within the medieval walls that surround much of the city center, overlooking the Romanesque cathedral, in front of the magnificent Italian garden of Palazzo Vincentini, two minutes from Sabina Universitas and the shopping street, and in front of the elevator leading to the newly renovated Santa Lucia Cultural Center. The strategic location also allows visitors to walk to the center of Italy (Umbilicus Italiae, as Rieti's Marco Terenzio Varrone called it) in Piazza San Rufo, whose church houses a wonderful organ and a Guardian Angel by Caravaggio. Text / Source: Quattro Stagioni, Piazza Cesare Battisti 14, IT-02100 Rieti RI Internet: https://www.hotelquattrostagionirieti.com/

Duomo di Santa Maria Assunta, Rieti The Cathedral of Saint Mary, Mother of God The Cathedral of Rieti, dedicated to Santa Maria Madre di Dio and commonly known as the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, was rebuilt on the foundations of the early Christian basilica, documented since the fifth century, between 1109 and 1225. The lower basilica, consecrated in 1157 and striking for its sober and composed forms, is divided into nine naves supported by columns made from the rubble of ancient Roman buildings, among which stands out a milestone of the consular salaria. The upper basilica, in which the architectural lines of the Romanesque plan have remained intact, demonstrates the radical changes resulting from the adaptation of liturgical norms and the change in tastes and styles. Of particular value is the decoration of the main portal, which interprets the motif of acanthus spirals, with clear classical assonance, reinterpreted in the Christian iconography of the Tree of Life. Text / Source: Official Tourist Portal of the City of Rieti https://www.visitrieti.com/2020/01/25/la-cattedrale-di-s-maria-madre-di-dio/

Umbilicus Italiæ - Centro d'Italia, Rieti / Geographical Center of Italy In Piazza San Rufo, Varronian tradition places the so-called Umbilicus Italiae, the geographical center of Italy, commemorated by a plaque. Piazza San Rufo is located amidst the imposing buildings of the historic center, which line the main streets Via Roma and Via Garibaldi. In the center of the square, a section of wall, a remnant of the Roman city's first city walls, can be seen beneath the pavement. The value of this area is commemorated by a plaque and a monument with a unique shape, located exactly in the center of the square and aptly called "la caciotta" (the caciotta) for its rounded and circular design. The work, created between the 1980s and 1990s following the city's twinning with the Georgian capital Tbilisi, appears to resemble the base of a column and features the design of the Italian peninsula on its surface, accompanied by the inscription "Umbilicus Italiae" (Umbilicus Italiae), which runs along half the circumference of the monument itself. Text / Source: Official Tourist Portal of the City of Rieti https://www.visitrieti.com/2020/01/25/rieti-umbilicus-italiae/

Quattro Stagioni, Piazza Cesare Battisti 14, Rieti RI The hotel is located in a restricted-traffic zone within the medieval walls that surround much of the city center, overlooking the Romanesque cathedral, in front of the magnificent Italian garden of Palazzo Vincentini, two minutes from Sabina Universitas and the shopping street, and in front of the elevator leading to the newly renovated Santa Lucia Cultural Center. The strategic location also allows visitors to walk to the center of Italy (Umbilicus Italiae, as Rieti's Marco Terenzio Varrone called it) in Piazza San Rufo, whose church houses a wonderful organ and a Guardian Angel by Caravaggio. Text / Source: Quattro Stagioni, Piazza Cesare Battisti 14, IT-02100 Rieti RI Internet: https://www.hotelquattrostagionirieti.com/

The three entrance portals to the cathedral and the bell tower maintain the original Romanesque style.

The patronage “SANTA MARIA ASSUNTA” (in German: “Assumption”) of the Episcopal Church (Cathedral) of Rieti refers to one of the many memorial or festival days in honor of the Mother of God Mary. It goes back to the festival of her physical assumption into heaven, which the (Catholic) Church celebrates annually on August 15th. In the Orthodox churches the feast is called the Dormition of the Virgin Mary. In many rural areas it is customary for bundles of herbs to be collected by the population on this day and blessed during the festival service.

The sanctuary of Santa Maria della Foresta is one of the four sanctuaries that celebrate the passage of San Francesco in the Reatina valley. According to some, it was precisely here that the Saint composed the Canticle of the Creatures. In this place there originally stood a small church dedicated to San Fabiano flanked by the priest's house alone. Legend has it that, during the period in which Saint Francis stayed here, many people from Rieti went to visit him, often picking bunches of grapes from the priest's vineyard. When it was time to collect the fruits for the harvest, the priest realized that there was very little left, nevertheless, encouraged by Saint Francis, he collected and harvested what little there was, however obtaining much more wine than in previous years. Of this episode, remembered as the "miracle of wine", traces can still be found inside the sanctuary: in fact, inside the domus there are the remains of a tank for pressing wine dating back to the period of the Saint's life.

The Romanesque bridge dates back to the 11th century, but was probably built on a pre-existing building of an unspecified period, of rare beauty, still usable but which requires urgent and significant restoration. In the two pillars it is possible to notice the three "holes" used to insert wooden poles horizontally, capable of supporting the "centre" for closing the stone arch. As you pass the bridge on the left, going up towards Posticciola, there is still a clear trace of "Garitta Muraria" where the border point with the Papal State and Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was made, and with the "horizontal transhumance" the duty for the ride. Transhumance has an ancient history which most likely coincides with the history of breeding itself and was regulated and disciplined since Roman times by a set of laws of taxes to be paid in the various customs. Transhumance derives from the Latin "trans" (beyond) and "humus" (earth) = pastoralism transmigrating with the seasons, along the sheep tracks (from the Latin "tractoria" = the shepherds' roads). In southern Italy transhumance was divided into "vertical" and "horizontal". The first concerned the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, with several sheep tracks that connected from Abruzzo to Puglia (the most important was the famous "Tratturo Magno"). Horizontal transhumance, however, also of ancient origins, descended into the Roman countryside and increased considerably in 1477, when Pope Sixtus IV forced all the shepherds of the "Kingdom of the Church" to take their animals to winter in the Agro Romano. Transhumance in Lazio reached its peak starting from 1800, when the "vertical" one entered into crisis. This was usually in provincial sections from Umbria towards Civitavecchia, from the Marche towards Polo and Maccarese, from Abruzzo towards the Roman countryside, from Ciociaria towards Anzio and Terracina. http://www.magiadelturano.it/index.php/posticciola/ponte-romanico